“Kneel.” Alaric gives the order with practiced ease. He’s made Beau kneel at his feet for at least an hour a day for the past week.
“Yes, Sir.” Beau’s cheeks still redden in humiliation as he lowers himself to the concrete. His heart feels more and more heavy with every degradation, but he silently refuses to let it force him to give up on himself.
Beau kneels on the cushion Alaric placed next to the chair, ever careful to not inflict needless cosmetic damage. He faces away from Alaric, the familiar boredom of staring at the gray wall setting in almost immediately. He taps his fingers against his legs without thinking.
“What did I tell you about fidgeting, darling?” Alaric’s voice rings out, making Beau flinch.
“You told me that I am to be still when kneeling, Sir.” Beau parrots the line that Alaric had fed him the first time he’d fidgeted. The second time, he just grabbed Beau around the neck and squeezed until he choked.
“Good boy.” The tapping of keys resumes. Beau fights the urge to sigh. He’d already exhausted all his important lines of thought. Escape plans, possible weapons, ways to manipulate Alaric. It’s all he really thinks about, but you can only think something through so many times before it feels useless to continue.
Three sharp knocks echo through the small room. Beau jumps, Alaric chuckles and pets his head. The door on the other hand, receives a stern glare. Alaric begrudgingly stands and opens the door. Beau cranes his neck to try and see who had dared to interrupt Alaric’s quiet time. He can’t see anyone past Alaric’s bulk, which gives him hope that it might be Naoko. His hope is crushed when he hears a deeper, differently accented voice tell Alaric to lighten up.
“I told you, you can meet him when he’s better trained.” Alaric sounds supremely annoyed by the mans presence.
“Aww come on. I introduced you to Catalina right away!” The man whines like a child, Beau stifles a laugh at the discrepancy between his and Alaric’s personalities.
“Fine. If it’ll get you out of my hair, you can introduce yourself. But that’s all.” Beau’s surprised to hear Alaric give in so easily. Alaric stands aside, revealing a small, good looking man. The man smiles widely upon the sight of Beau. He rushes forward and gets on one knee to be at Beau’s level.
“Wow! You’re so pretty!” The man pats Beau’s head.
Beau thinks of the rules Alaric had given him about addressing Mixters. He can only assume the man is a Master, he doesn’t think a helper or a pet could treat Alaric like that. “Thank you, Sir.” He forces himself to bow his head. The man sighs dreamily at the respectful language.
“Doesn’t seem like you’ll need my help with his training.” The man turns to Alaric and laughs.
“Most certainly not.” Alaric glares at the man, his expression dark and tense. Beau glances between the two, surprised by Alaric’s open aggression. He’d assumed Alaric would be polite with other Mixters. The man doesn’t seem perturbed by Alaric’s annoyance, he just smiles and pats Alaric on the back.
“Perhaps I could borrow him sometime? I think Catalina could use a friend.”
“Most certainly not.” Alaric looks ready to kill. His hands are clenched tightly together behind his back, as if holding back the urge to strike the man.
“Hmm. I could bring Catalina here? They could have a little play-date.” He laughs cordially, completely ignoring Alaric’s anger.
“That can be discussed in the future.” Alaric makes him way to the door, clearly encouraging the man to leave.
“Oh goodie! I’ll email you about it when I get the chance.” He practically skips through the open door. Beau half expects Alaric to shove him into the hallway by force.
“Fine, fine. We’ll make a plan. Goodbye Iweobi.” He shuts the door harder than necessary, the slam makes Beau flinch. Alaric sighs heavily as he sits back down, he slumps slightly in the chair, his decent mood ruined. For a moment, Beau almost feels bad for him.
“You seems like you have questions. Go ahead.” Alaric’s voice sounds slightly haggard.
“Um, who was that, Sir? A master?” Beau looks up at Alaric when he speaks to him, as Alaric had ‘taught’ him. His teaching method being smacking Beau on the head with a book when he didn’t make eye contact at the ‘proper time’.
“Yes. Iweobi. He’s a powerful figure within the Organization, but not a well liked one.” Alaric gives him a particularly stern look. “I don’t want you to be alone with him, ever. Understood?”
Beau nods silently before correcting himself. “Yes, Sir.” Alaric turns his focus back to his laptop and Beau turns back to the wall. Beau’s surprised to find that his heart is pounding. Something about Iweobi and how Alaric had reacted to his presence had frightened him. He spends the rest of his time kneeling repeating the interaction over and over in his head.